Economic Geography

On services and economic geography
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relation to the drag they exerted on economic growth or the importance of
earlier waves of labour and capital saving during the 1920s in the US that opened
the door for new forms of work and societal development in the form of services.
Another theme which has greatly exercised those involved with services
research is definition, classification and the related availability of suitably
detailed/accurate statistics. The root of the anxiety can be traced, at least in part,
to the uncertainty about the actual distinction between goods and services (see
above). This is encapsulated in an early and very important paper by Hill (1977),
an economist, in which the concept, definition and measurement of a service is
elaborated in considerable detail. For Hill there is a major distinction between
services affecting goods (such as the changes in the physical condition of goods
by cleaning, repairs or decoration) and services affecting persons (changes in
their mental or physical condition by activities such as education, entertainment,
surgery, personal service, or communication) (see Hill 1977: 319–25). The
outcomes from these two ‘streams’ of services may be permanent or temporary;
a haircut brings about a temporary change in so far as it will need to be repeated
while, other things being equal, surgery will generate a permanent change that
is not reversible. It is also possible to distinguish, for both service ‘streams’
changes that are physical and changes that are mental, e.g. an entertainment
experience or a sense of well being after a short holiday. Finally, some services
such as education can be provided collectively as well as individually and can be
distinguished from ‘pure public services’ such as fire, police and similar govern-
ment services that ‘Individuals are deemed to consume . . . all the time whether
or not they want such services or are even aware of them’ (Hill 1977: 338). The
value of this analysis is its demonstration of the complexity of defining services
and the knock-on effect on the potential for very complicated cross-classifications.
Definitive solutions have yet to be produced; a group such as the Voorburg
Group on Services Statistics (comprising national and international statistical
agencies) are testament to this. Created in 1986 in response to a request from the
United Nations Statistical Office (UNSO) for assistance in developing services
statistics, the Group (statisticians, economists) involves exchanges amongst
national statistical agencies and international organisations that lead to solutions
of particular problems or the development of international guidelines in the field
of service sector statistics. In recent years its agenda has expanded to include
topics such as ways of estimating the real product of service activities, prices of 
service products, international trade in services, and employment, skills and 
occupations in the service sector.